Season 2018

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• Brimming with determination and ambition, he is one of the sport´s brightest young talents

• An eight-round World Rally Car programme in 2018 could be a game changer for him

• He´s the latest in a long line of top youngsters to emerge from the M-Sport stable

The story so far

Young Finnish hotshot Teemu Suninen has forged a reputation as one of the WRC´s most promising talents following his debut in 2013.

He made his mark in the 2014 Rally Finland when, on his WRC debut, he won the WRC 3 class. That result got him noticed by Toyota Motorsport in Cologne who signed him to its TMG Junior Driver Development Programme.

The deal got him six WRC outings in 2015 with the Oreca team, initially in an R3 spec DS 3 and later a Ford Fiesta R5. He added two more rounds himself, driving a privately-run Skoda Fabia R5. Highlights were a WRC 3 win at Rally Italia Sardegna with the DS 3 and a WRC 2 win in Britain in the Skoda.

Suninen remained in TMG’s development scheme in 2016 and contested the full WRC 2 season in a Fabia R5. Wins in Mexico, Sardinia and Poland made him one of the favourites to take the title, but he lost out by 10 points to Esapekka Lappi.

More WRC 2 rounds followed in 2017 at the wheel of a Fiesta R5 prepared by M-Sport, but it was two outings in a Fiesta World Rally Car - when he won a stage in Poland and almost claimed a podium in Finland - that made the biggest impression.

He steps up to an eight-round World Rally Car programme this season with reigning WRC champions M-Sport Ford World Rally Team.

He will tackle rounds in Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Turkey, Great Britain and Spain in the top category and will gain further experience with WRC 2 appearances in a Fiesta R5 in Monte-Carlo and Germany.